Proverbs 4:23
23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
Having a family with 2 small kids (soon to be 3) it is very important to me that the content of what media we consume is not only age appropriate for my children but also edifying as well. There are plenty of shows that have an age appropriate rating that seems to be satisfactory but do not have the kind of message or spirit that we want our family to take in.
I'd like to offer a few websites that we use to help evaluate movies. I'm recommending kids-in-mind.com and movieguide.org. They are great resources to evaluate the content of films before u see them.
Kids In Mind does not review the quality of the film simply the content.Here is the kids-in-mind rating explanation. It has a 3 number rating. The first number is for sex and nudity, the second is violence and gore, the third is profanity. For instance the recent Justin Beiber movie received a 2.1.1. As you can see pretty safe.
Movieguide has similar ratings but also reviews the quality from a filmmaking AND Christian worldview (separate ratings) standpoint. Movieguide gives up to 4 stars for the quality of the film regardless of the content. There is also a content rating from -4 (the lowest rating for morality and negative content) to +4. Dr. Ted Baehr is behind Movieguide. He has been in the movie industry for over 40 years as a bold Christian, championing morality in Hollywood. Similar to Kids in Mind, Movieguide also rates the specific content of the film on a scale of 1 to 4.
One of the things I like about Movieguide is that they typically review all films and try to fairly assess the quality of the film regardless of the content. This actually legitimizes the site more in my opinion that many Christian sites I've seen that review a movie terribly if it does not have Christian values. Movieguide isolates the various ratings to give as much information as possible.
I love movies, I have since 1978 when my uncle took me to see Grease and I walked down the center aisle toward Olivia Newton John during "You're The One That I want" at age 6. Even though there are brilliant films that I might thoroughly enjoy, I understand the value of protecting my heart from injurious material that could damage what the Lord is trying to do in my life. I don't want to be a prude but I certainly don't want to settle for raunchy either.
Take your time when making decisions on what you will watch or what you will allow your family to watch. Do the research. Its ok not to see a movie that everyone has seen. Hey, I've never seen The Sound of Music and I'm still ok ;) Your spirit is so much more sensitive than you realize. Let's honor the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives by guarding our hearts more than ever.
